Posts Tagged: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti

The first time I met Madame Lalou Bize-Leroy about ten years ago, I was intimidated by this diminutive figure who was at least four inches shorter than me. Her snow-white, shoulder-length hair was pulled back in a low pony tail and her piercing blue eyes, the color of clear summer sky, seemed to look right into your soul.

It wasn’t just her reputation as the grand dame of Burgundy, one of the most powerful women in wine, formerly at the helm of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and now Domaine Leroy, that intimidated me. Nor was it the fact that her wines are sublime and command the highest prices in Burgundy when they are released, usually later and in much smaller quantities than any other producer.

It was her intensity and clear love for her wines that both impressed and intimidated me at the same time. Many years ago I asked her how she manages to get so much intensity and energy in her wines, and she replied, “It is simple, I love my vines more than most people.” Continue reading: Forbes

Auction house Sotheby’s has withdrawn a magnum of 1959 Romanée-Conti from its next London sale after a query surrounding a strip label it carries. The magnum of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was due to be sold during the London leg of the ‘A Monumental Collection from the Cellars of a Connoisseur’ sale on 29 March.

It has now been withdrawn “pending further investigation” to ensure its provenance and authenticity.

Domaine de la Romanée-Conti was unusual in Burgundy in that it was an extremely early adopter of estate bottling. Initially this was just for its Romanée-Conti, the other wines of the estate were still sent, as was traditional throughout the region, to bigger négociant houses in Beaune for bottling, including Maison Joseph Drouhin.

Gert Crum in his book on the history of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (published in 2005) notes that it was not until 1929 – a particularly good vintage – that Edmond de Villaine and then co-owner Jacques Chambon decided to begin bottling these other crus at the domaine.

Nonetheless, even if the proportion of wine bottled by Drouhin for the estate declined after this date it remained an important part of the distribution network.

As Crum continues in his book, into the 1940s Drouhin was still “the largest distributor of the Domaine’s wines.”**

With the arrival of the Leroy family in 1942, a family with its own substantial négociant business and distribution network (Maison Leroy), Drouhin’s role as a major distributor no doubt declined yet further but it did not finish entirely and Maison Joseph Drouhin was still an important buyer of wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for several decades afterwards.

Sotheby’s statement makes it quite clear in this regard when it states: “Our research to date confirms that this magnum number was sold by Domaine de la Romanée-Conti to Drouhin.”

The unfortunate association of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti with a number of recent high-profile fraud cases such as The White Club and “Dr Conti” himself, Rudy Kurniawan, tied in as it is with the extraordinary demand and prices wines from the estate command and what is seen as the culpability and malpractice of a few auction houses in accepting consignments of fake wines, naturally leads to high levels of scrutiny even paranoia surrounding old (and sometimes younger) bottles of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Six bottles of 1926 Vosne-Romanée ‘Les Gaudichots’ from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti have sold for over $70,000 at Sotheby’s recent London sale. DRC dominated the sale, held on 15 June, with buyers focusing on half cases of 1990 Romanée-Conti, La Tâche and Richebourg.

The sale made over $1,571,476 in total and was over 90% sold. Stephen Mould, head of Sotheby’s Wine, Europe, commented: “We saw excellent results with a collection of first growths and Domaine de la Romanée Conti, and a collection consisting mostly of youthful Claret, both 100% sold.

“A thirst for rare wine was evident throughout the sale, led by six bottles of Vosne Romanée Les Gaudichots 1926 – part of a time capsule of historical wines with impeccable provenance – which soared over estimate.”

The half dozen of ‘Les Gaudichots’ were sold to a US trade buyer for $70,077. It’s very rare to see DRC premier cru for sale and the domaine folded its Gaudichots plot into La Tâche when it acquired the monopole from the Liger-Belair family in the 1930s so the label no longer ‘exists’ strictly speaking.

Top claret lots at the sale included 1989 Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, 2000 Lafite and 1994 Petrus.

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